Lat weekend I was photographing a wedding in Glennallen, which is about a three and a half hour drive northeast of Anchorage. I was very happy to take this job because I love any opportunity I can get to spend time driving along Alaska’s highways. I could spend a lifetime doing it. One never know s what kind of subject matter may present itself and that makes it always exciting. I may come across a mother bear and her cubs and be able to watch them scramble up a tree or I may see the clouds part and allow the sun to paint the landscape in front of me in a way I’ve never seen before. I keep my cameras on the seat next to me, and my tripod at the ready in the back. I had mostly overcast skies and no wildlife sightings but I still managed to get a few decent stock shots. The difficult thing for me is to resist the urge to take a few snaps out the window and keep going. For each of these images, with the exception of the pilot car, I pulled the car off the highway and set up the tripod so I could concentrate on composition and get the maximum depth of field (apparent sharpness) at a lower, finer grain, ISO (film speed). All seven of these images were taken on my way home from the roadway. Not a bad commute if you ask me! The old auto was found on a private residence in Glennallen. The floatplane is on Tazlina Lake. The highlighted taiga and mountain peaks were near Tahneta Pass. The glacier is the Matanuska. The last two images are typical of most any Alaska travel. It is very hard to go anywhere without having to stop and wait for a spell as a road crew frantically works on improving the roadway before winter sets in again. I sort of like it. It gives me an excuse to look around in spots you may never take the time.
OK, I’ll try not to veer away from Alaska too often in this “Chatalaska” blog but I stumbled across something very interesting and exciting to me as I was going through the images from my recent Costa Rica trip. I was working as the photography guide for Journey’s International, helping clients improve their image taking skills. The focus of the trip, of course, was photographing the diverse flora and fauna, varying ecosystems, and, to some extent, the people. The majority of the trip was spent in exotic locales for just that purpose. I was lucky enough to spend time “working” in a cloud forest, and at the foot of an active volcano, in the heart of a jungle, and on a coffee plantation. The photo opportunities were incredible and I can’t wait to get back next May to lead another photo safari. (I know, no kidding, duh!) The surprise came when I was “off” duty. I had a couple of days to myself in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, before and after the official safari dates. San Jose is at the center of a huge metropolitan area comprised of 1.6 million people. It is relatively safe, according to statistics, but everyone from our local guide to the hotel clerks advised strongly that I didn’t bring my “big” cameras out on the street’s as they would be a serious target for thieves. This worried me enough that during my first two days in the city I did indeed leave my cameras in my hotel room as I wandered about. It was a very difficult decision to do so. I couldn’t believe I was in a new place and I couldn’t take photos! I waffled and waffled and finally went out sans camera. (I will note here that during the four days I spent in the city I only saw one person with a “serious” camera.) I was seriously frustrated but felt I was doing the right thing. I couldn’t afford to lose a camera before my work began. On my last two days, after the safari, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had missed too many delicious photo-ops while wandering around town. I decided I’d take my camera out of the box (hotel room) and sneak some photos just around the block, not go too far. I only took one body and one lens. I took several images just around the corner and it felt good. Really good! I couldn’t resist the urge to keep on going. I decided I’d just keep my eyes open, grip my camera firmly and not venture into areas that were just plain foolish. (For a brief moment I was drawn towards some dilapidated buildings but thought better of it.) I’m finally getting to the point of all of this! My outdoor photography is usually done in beautiful natural settings. I usually get out of any big cities as fast as I can. I’m suffocated and confused. But because of scheduling, I ended up having to spend some time in this one. Much to my surprise though, something clicked. It seemed I couldn’t stop finding interesting compositions, colors, and subjects. It turned out to be one of those rare occasions where I got completely absorbed by my art and came out at the end of a chunk of time not knowing how long it had been and marveling at what I had just experienced. Pure creative freedom. I had no expectations and no pressures to perform. This was image making just for the pleasure of it. I don’t know if it was the exotic country or the completely new subject matter but I came up with a set of images that I love and I’m excited to pursue similar work here and abroad. I’m curious to see if the same type of inspiration takes me in my home city of Anchorage. I’ll keep you posted. By leaving my hotel room, camera in hand, and taking images outside my normal expertise, I stepped out of my literal and metaphorical boxes and found new creative opportunity. I’m constantly amazed at the gifts given me through this career, photography.
Adjusting to a cold, cloudy, rainy, Alaskan summer!
If you don’t live in Alaska or check the nations weather regularly you may not know that we haven’t had much of a summer this year. I think we’ve had only one day that’s been over 70 degrees F and only a handful of days that have blessed us with glorious sunshine. We’ve had record precipitation and the snow hasn’t left the peaks. In fact I saw a new dusting just this afternoon! This hasn’t dampened my love of Alaska in the slightest. In fact, one of the things that thrills me about living here is that the weather is completely unpredictable. It makes it seem, well, wild. Typically we get a wonderful mixture of sunny, overcast, rainy, and blustery days that is really wonderful for a photographer because certain subjects look better under certain light. If you don’t like the type of light on a subject one day your sure to have an opportunity for another quality very soon. The light this summer hasn’t varied too much. So, I’ve had to keep my focus on subjects that work well in the ever present soft, dim, light this summer has given me. One of the more difficult types of images in these conditions is the grand landscape. Including much bland, white, sky is usually an image killer. Thus, I’ve been aiming my camera down and tight, focusing on subjects that are rendered beautiful by the soft box quality light and the color saturating rains. I’ve posted several images from recent weeks that I really like. A good lesson in all this is you can find wonderful images no matter what the conditions are. You just have to get out there. Don’t let the weather stop you- within reason of course! A few creative notes on what’s posted:
1) Macro photography is great in overcast light. You lose the harsh contrast of a sunny scene. 2) Often foul weather adds a wonderful drama to an image such as the image of the loons on the lake and the pano in Denali National Park. 3) Details of flora and fauna are especially flattering under soft light. 4) A note on the bear images. Same bear, different angles. You can see the dramatic difference achieved by just moving around and working the scene. Also, don’t let rain stop you! 5) When I’m on a trip I find it hard to put my camera away so if the weather is putting a damper on things, poor visibility etc., I start looking where I usually wouldn’t and having fun with more unusual images such as the person above me on the Alaska Railroad car. 6) Lastly, sharing the outdoors with friends and family makes for special memories and images. The last is of my favorite guy in the world, my son Jack.
A wonderful tool to carry in your camera bag is the polarizing filter. This small (though not inexpensive) addition to your gear can have dramatic effects on your image making. A polarizer basically eliminates light waves that travel parallel to your lens barrel helping to saturate colors, reduce glare and reflections, and add some punch to partly cloudy skies. These filters come as lens- mounted screw-ons that rotate in front of the lens or as rectangular filters for filter holders such as the Cokin P series. There are also two types. You can buy circular or linear polarizers. If you have a camera with through-the-lens metering, which most SLR’s are now, or split screen focusing, you need to use the circular type or else you’ll have trouble getting proper exposures and focus. If you’re not sure, it’s always safe to get the circular type. The advantage of the rectangular filters is that you only need one filter for all of your lenses ( as long as you have a filter adapter for each lens as well). With the screw-mount filters you need to have one for each varying lens mount diameter you own, 52mm, 77mm, 62mm etc. I prefer the screw mount type because I can still use my lens hood, which in many cases is critical in keeping stray light off the front of the lens. Using the filter is easy. Once it’s mounted, you just rotate it until you achieve the desired effect. There are a couple of things to know that will help you out; A polarizer is most effective when it’s at a 90 degree angle to the sun, meaning the sun is to your left or right, and is also more effective when the sun is low ie: near sunrise and sunset. This isn’t to say it can’t be useful during mid-day. The polarizer can really make a partly cloudy sky dramatic any time of day. Also, once you start using wide angle lenses over 28mm you really start to notice a banding in the sky, a dramatic darkening and lightening that can ruin an image. It looks very unnatural. So keep an eye out! Another thing to keep in mind is that a polarizer darkens your exposure so your going to lose 1 1/2 to 2 stops of light. This means your tripod will be a necessity in lower light! As with every technique it’s important not to over use it. A polarizer can give a distinct look to an image and can be seen as too gimmicky if used too often or to the extreme. One thing I like to do is rotate the filter until I’ve achieved maximum effect and then rotate back a bit until the effect is somewhere in between full and none. This helps make the look a little more natural. Once you experiment a bit you’ll start seeing situations where it might be effective. In the first image I’ve posted the polarizer helped eliminate some of the glare from the dead tree and saturated the fall colors. You can see some of the banding in the sky I was talking about but it wasn’t enough to bother me here. This second image was taken with no polarization while the third image has the full effect of the polarizer. Notice the saturated colors and the lack of glare on the foliage and stream in the polarized image. The extra time required because of the two stops loss of light also helped get the nice blur in the moving water. Similarly, Image 4 has no polarization while Image 5 is fully polarized. I also included Image 6, which shows the scene partially polarized and a more natural look that still has benefits from the filter! Experiment and have some fun!
I’ve been asked this question many times. What people are referring to is the silky, blurred, effect you can achieve with moving water, or any moving subject for that matter. The technique itself is fairly simple. What you need to do is use a fairly long shutter speed ranging anywhere from 1/4” to several seconds or more depending on the speed your subject is traveling. The faster your subject the less time you need to achieve a desirable blur. Sounds easy enough right? The catch is, if you want the stationary objects to appear sharp, you need to use a tripod! I’m amazed at how difficult it is to get some people to use a tripod. Even when they go through the effort of carrying one it is like pulling teeth to get them to set it up and actually use it! Now that you all have sworn to use the tripod you will be carrying, here is what you should do. After you’ve set up the camera and double-checked your composition, set your cameras ISO to the lowest option available, usually ISO 100 or ISO 50. Not only will this give you less noise in your image, it also aids in giving you a slower shutter speed. Now, take your camera off of any “auto program” mode you may have it on. The camera doesn’t know the effect you are looking for and only tries to achieve proper exposure. You can achieve excellent results in Manual, Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority modes. I’ll use Manual for this description. In manual exposure mode, set a small aperture from F8 to F22 to make sure you have a nice range of apparent focus (depth of field). The smaller aperture also adds more time to your exposure thus also aiding to your motion blur effect. Now adjust your shutter speed until your in camera meter is set at zero- in the center- for a proper exposure. If you don’t have a shutter speed of 1/4 second or longer try a smaller aperture and then readjust your shutter speed until your meter reads correctly. On typical overcast days or in shaded forests or in low light scenes (dawn, dusk) this should give you plenty of blur to achieve the silky effect. Experiment with different shutter/aperture combinations to achieve the effect you like. When you have white water (rapids etc.) in the scene it is important to keep an eye on your histogram and make sure any bright areas aren’t flashing. If they are you will have no detail there. Adjust your settings so that you are slightly underexposed, ie: your camera meter is reading two or three notches in the “minus” direction. Occasionally you may want to try this effect in bright situations (full daylight etc.) when even at your lowest ISO and smallest aperture you can’t achieve a slow shutter speed. Fear not! There are options available to you. They require the purchase of additional tools but they are tools valuable for other reasons as well. Pretty much any filter that reduces the amount of light reaching your sensor, and thus increasing the length of exposure, can aid you in this situation. A polarizing filter reduces your exposure by approximately two stops. Neutral density filters come in gradations that reduce your light intake in values from one to eleven stops, also you can use more than one (stacking) to dramatically increase your exposure time. If you do stack filters pay attention to possible vignetting at the corners of your image. If this occurs, zoom in a little bit or plan on cropping in a bit. Sometimes the vignette works well. Once you’ve found the right shutter speed/aperture combo it helps to use your cameras timer or a cable release to reduce vibration. Also, if you have a mirror lock up function available it can really help. This function raises the mirror inside the camera on the first press of the cable or shutter button and then releases the shutter on the second press, instead of both being done on the same press and possibly adding unwanted vibration. Lastly, it pays to wait until any breeze has died down and make sure your camera strap isn’t loosely dangling around adding movement! Wooden walkways and bridges are dangerous as well. Anyone walking on them during an exposure will ruin your shot. I’ve spent a lot of time just waiting for a break in the wind or a lack of people. It’s always time well spent.
